I needed today’s run.

After taking yesterday off to collect my thoughts about Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol, I forced myself away from the television and doom scrolling on Twitter to run. As a former History teacher and retired Coastie, the insurrection attempt hit me hard.

How I deal with difficult situations in my life is to go for a run.

Outside it was a beautiful Winter day. Temps were in the mid-20s, a mild wind out of the North and bright sunshine. Plus, the road was mostly clear—all good things.

I decided to run 5.0 miles but knew that running through the Blake Road section would be challenging and I would have needed ice spikes to get through upright. So I did the Shepard/Pepin 5.0 Miler.

Going out, I didn’t think much about running. I was thinking about everything that happened on Wednesday and the aftermath. All that stuff that I watched and read so much about in the news and on Twitter.

I imagined different scenarios happening and noticed that I was coming to the end of my road. I didn’t bother looking at the mile split and then got lost in thought again. There were a couple of guys walking down on Pepin, so I did put my mask up as I went past them, as part of what I am supposed to do.

Coming back out of Pepin, the wind began to pick up, and I noticed that I was slowing down. Then going up Philbrick, I slowed down even more. I began to wonder if I would be walking before I got to the top of the hill. Then I got to thinking about all the crap that has gone on this week and got pissed again. Yeah, I made it to the top of the hill.

At the last minute, I decided to go straight down to the lower gate. I did pick up the pace a little more than I thought, but the 5.0-mile mark this time was the big pine, so I had to watch the footing once I got past the Town plowed/sanded area.

Let’s be real. This run had zero to do with training or even running. This run was all about clearing my head, thinking about Wednesday’s events, and attempting to sort things out a little more for myself.

Did I?

A little.

I realize that there is no political will on the part of the majority of his party to hold Trump or others accountable for what happened. The Republicans will stall, hoping the attack on the Capitol will fall out of the news cycle. Then they can go back to being the party of “no” after the 20th and say it is political persecution by the Democrats to go after the perpetrators after that.

I have a feeling that it is going to be another long year ahead of us in 2021.

What else is new?

Oh, by the way, did I tell you I got to run? Well, I did, and the overall pace was a LOT faster than I thought it would be. I guess being pissed and running makes you run a little faster.

No, I haven’t lost my sense of humor, but political theater sure does suck.